L. W. Currey, Inc.

Locke, Richard Adams. [THE MOON HOAX] THE HISTORY OF THE MOON OR AN ACCOUNT OF THE WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES OF SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, WHO, BY MEANS OF AN OBJECT GLASS WEIGHING SEVEN TONS, WITH A MAGNIFYING POWER OF 42,000 TIMES, HAS BEEN ENABLED TO DISCOVER IN THE MOON, ROCKS, TREES, FLOWERS, VERDANT PLAINS, VOLCANOES, LAKES, SEAS, SHEEP, DEER, BEARS, AND BEAVERS, AND, MOST WONDERFUL STILL INTELLIGENT WINGED BEINGS, MALE AND FEMALE, WHO FLY ABOUT AND WALK ERECT LIKE MEN. AUTHENTICATED ALSO BY AN EYE WITNESS ... [caption title]. [London: Printed and Published by B. D. Cousins, 18, Duke street, Lincoln's-inn-fields], n.d. [1836]. Octavo, pp. [1] 2-4 [5] 6-7 [8-9] 10-16, double page wood engraving on pages [8-9], bound without the publisher's wrappers in nineteenth-century three-quarter leather and marbled boards. First illustrated British edition. A penny pamphlet reprint of Locke's successful hoax perpetrated in the NEW YORK SUN, in August 1835, which pretended to reveal a discovery that men and animals existed on the Moon. The revelations, supposedly reprinted from the actually defunct EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, pretended to reveal a discovery that men and animals existed on the Moon and were so cleverly wrought that, for a short time, the report was given credence in scientific circles in the United States and Europe. The report was soon denounced as a hoax by the public press and Richard Adams Locke (1800-1871), a reporter for the SUN, was identified as the perpetrator of the "ingenious astronomical hoax." Interest in the lunar discoveries increased the SUN's circulation to more than nineteen thousand, the largest of any daily of that time. According to William Gowans who reprinted the story in 1859, Locke's account created such public interest that the owners of the SUN published sixty thousand copies of it in pamphlet form. The pamphlet was published in September 1835 and every copy was sold in less than a month. Bound at the rear of this copy are newspaper clippings from the NEW YORK SUN, Sunday, 25 October 1891 printing part of an article on the discovery of a copy of the American 1835 pamphlet, the two lithographs, and other items in a lead box found in the cornerstone while demolishing the old Brooklyn Institute building. The article includes crude drawings of the two lithographed pictures of life on the Moon prepared to illustrate the American edition of the pamphlet. Locke, Voyages in Space (2011) V435e. Text paper a bit tanned, old vertical mailing crease, a very good copy. OCLC reports three copies, including two also found on COPAC. (#179031).

Price: $1,500.00